Check out the next episode of The Energy Show on Renewable Energy World with your host Barry Cinnamon and special guest Cully Judd of Solar Supply and SunEarth.

As Jimmy Carter said, "what starts in California unfortunately has an inclination to spread." When it comes to solar, this quote should be changed to "fortunately," since California leads the nation in solar deployments of all types. But there is a state — even farther to the west — that is the real leader when it comes to rooftop solar penetration and the challenge these systems present to electric utilities.

In Hawaii, 50 percent of households have either solar PV or solar thermal systems on their rooftops. Simple economics drive this high degree of market penetration: electricity prices are around $0.35/kwh, there is negligible distribution of natural gas for water heating, and imported oil provides 70 percent of the fuel for electricity generation (compared to 1 percent for the rest of the U.S.). Rooftop solar thermal systems are the most economical source of domestic hot water, and rooftop PV is quite cost-effective for electricity. Rooftop PV is so compelling that the utilities in Hawaii are limiting new installations.

Cully Judd is the co-founder of Inter-Island Solar Supply (one of the nation's largest PV distributors) and SunEarth (a leading solar thermal collector manufacturer). He and his associates have been actively involved in the growth of the market in Hawaii, and are working hard to overcome incumbent energy providers' opposition to more renewable power. Please join me on this week's Energy Show on Renewable Energy World as Judd talks about the challenges and opportunities that rooftop solar present at high customer penetration levels.

Watch Meg Cichon chat with Dora Nakafuji, director of renewable energy planning at the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO), at PV America 2014 about the recent grid interconnection crisis on the island and how HECO is planning for a renewable future.

As energy costs consume more and more of our hard-earned dollars, we as consumers really start to pay attention. But we don't have to resign ourselves to $5/gallon gas prices, $200/month electric bills and $500 heating bills. There are literally hundreds of products, tricks and techniques that we can use to dramatically reduce these costs — very affordably.

The Energy Show on Renewable Energy World is a weekly 20-minute podcast that provides tips and advice to reduce your home and business energy consumption. Every week we'll cover topics that will help cut your energy bill, explain new products and technologies in plain English, and cut through the hype so that you can make smart and cost-effective energy choices.

About Your Host

Barry Cinnamon is a long-time advocate of renewable energy and is a widely recognized solar power expert. In 2001 he founded Akeena Solar — which grew to become the largest national residential solar installer by the middle of the last decade with over 10,000 rooftop customers coast to coast. He partnered with Westinghouse to create Westinghouse Solar in 2010, and sold the company in 2012.

His pioneering work on reducing costs of rooftop solar power systems include Andalay, the first solar panel with integrated racking, grounding and wiring; the first UL listed AC solar panel; and the first fully “plug and play” AC solar panel. His current efforts are focused on reducing the soft costs for solar power systems, which cause system prices in the U.S. to be double those of Germany.

Although Barry may be known for his outspoken work in the solar industry, he has hands-on experience with a wide range of energy saving technologies. He's been doing residential energy audits since the punch card days, developed one of the first ground-source heat pumps in the early ‘80s, and always abides by the Laws of Thermodynamics.

To Donald Mayfield: Here is one such report about rooftop solar after Hurricane Iselle hit the Big Island. I'm on Oahu, and had little rain and little wind. My 10-panel system was fine. We dodged a bullet this time.

Hawaiian Electric ( HECO ) is still living and operating in the 19th century, in an accelerating death spiral. It continues to stonewall development of geothermal and solar energy to protect itself and has been in violation of its non-exclusive franchise for many years.

It crushed the rooftop solar industry last year, not for protection and safety of the grid, but for protection of its monopoly control of power. Some residents have been connecting PV systems to the grid without HECO’s approval, and thus far, to my knowledge, their have been no publicly verified instances of those systems causing problems for the grid. HECO claimed that problems had occurred on Maui, but has not provided any proof. Everyone just accepts its word as the god’s gospel truth.

According to Forbes, former Energy Secretary and now Stanford U. Professor, Stephen Chu, considers HECO's solar penetration policies to be "BS".

HECO wants to circumvent competitive bidding to quickly build solar farms with its preferred contractors instead of utilizing rooftops to produce power and cool the rooftops simultaneously to lower energy costs. Our high value land should be utilized to produce food, not electricity.

The monopoly opposes more geothermal development because it won’t be able to compete with its low cost just as it can’t compete with rooftop solar, especially when residents start going off grid with battery backup. HECO wants full control of solar power, not the people, to maintain its monopoly and its profits.

Big Island Parker Ranch formed Paniolo Power Company to compete with Hawaiian Electric Light Company, HELCO, because ratepayers are fed up with paying 40 to 45 c/kWh.

HECO is the most poorly managed, unscrupulous, and to me, unethical company in Hawaii. Some residents burn candles at night and cook with wood because they can’t afford electricity, and 2 homes have burned down as a result. Residents are forced to choose between food, medicine, Etc. and paying for electricity at 3 to 4 times mainland rates.
There are numerous allegations of overcharging customers, of antitrust violations, and of price fixing by tying electricity costs to the price of oil. Geothermal produced electricity now costs 8-9 c/kWh, but HELCO charges customers 40 to 45 c/kWh.

Does HECO or our politicians care about this injustice and abuse of power? The company makes $3 billion yearly, HEI CEO, Constance Lau, rakes in $5.8 million, and the company insists on maintaining a dividend that is twice what many mainland utilities provide.

HECO won’t dare cut the dividend by 50% and use money saved to upgrade the grid. Ms. Lau and other top executives won’t take a 50% cut in salary and compensation. They are ruining our economy as the same idolators of money that Pope Francis spoke about last year. They are willing to destroy people’s lives, and all other small businesses, even our environment, to insure its survival for another 100 years.

The company spreads money around profusely whenever necessary to insure that no one steps out of line from marching to the beat of its drum. If a company dares to speak out in defiance of its power, HECO will cut that business off at the knees! One solar contractor refused to be a plaintiff in John Carroll’s breach of public trust lawsuit because he fears for his business, family, and finances to pay the mortgage. HECO instills fear in everyone to maintain control. Everyone is afraid of the Big Bad Wolf.
Over the years, HECO lost about $100 million on bad investments, ratepayer money that should have been used to maintain and upgrade the grid. It is now asking the PUC to approve the sale of more shares of stock, somehow internally, claiming that it doesn’t have enough money to upgrade its long neglected, dilapidated, and crumbling grid.

The company’s greed, poor, incompetent management, bad investments, and neglect, are to blame for any challenges it claims to have adding more renewable energy to the grid.

The comment Dora Nakafuji made about HECO’s responsibility for grid reliability is unfounded. Reliability is mediocre at best, and Hawaii, especially Oahu, seems to be plagued by power failures almost daily. I had to file a complaint with the PUC to force HECO to do something about the 13 power failures on my street in 12 months. We recently had another hour long power outage in the middle of its power upgrade project.

It is estimated that HECO is spending between $500,000 and $800,000 to upgrade the grid for 35 homes, and I’m told that there are bids as high as $1 million for similar projects all around Oahu. It might cost hundreds of millions to upgrade a grid that may not even be needed in the future as new micro-grids are implemented and technologies allow each home and business to have their own power source.

This excerpt from a 2000 Honolulu Weekly article, HECO - Wired To The Past - is still true today. “You bring in any engineer from any big utility company on the Mainland, and they’re horrified at what the system looks like, at the technology they use and at what it costs. It’s appalling,"

The following article concurs with Off Wall Street, that HECO’s stock is realistically valued at $14-$15 a share, not $25, citing such things as low profitability, misleading accounting earnings ( fudging the numbers to make itself look much better than it really is ), the serious threat of solar, and over the top valuation.

My recommendation - don’t listen to ANYTHING HECO says and start hearing the voices of the ratepayers. The company continues to portray itself as our holier than thou, angelic saint and savior, when, in fact, it is a wolf in sheep's clothing, the fox guarding the hen house.

Our Legislature has debated for 30 years about converting HECO to public power, and retired executive VP, Robbie Alm, stated on Capitol TV last year, that HECO will cooperate fully in that conversion.

However, the current Governor, Neil Abercrombie, House and Senate Energy Chairs, Chris Lee and Mike Gabbard, and House Finance chair, Sylvia Luke, are puppets of the monopoly because it helps them stay in power.

HECO is running scared and stepping up its distorted and deceptive propaganda campaign because Honolulu attorney, John Carroll, succeeded in having his breach of public trust lawsuit against the HECO monopoly, and State of Hawaii, accepted by the court on May 29, much to the consternation and bewilderment of the defendants and surprise of many others.

The judge agreed that electricity is a natural resource protected by public trust doctrine of our constitution, not a commodity created by HECO.

We, the people of Hawaii, want public power like that in other states like Nebraska. No other solution is acceptable.

ANONYMOUS - I can assure you that Cully Judd is NOT an idiot (some people say the jury is still out about me). The Hawaii PUC has basically sided with Cully Judd and the rest of the PV industry -- there are indeed ways to achieve these high penetration levels of PV. The problem is money, and HECO doesn't want to spend any of their profits in ways that jeopardize their business model. I agree with you that there is no guidebook, but that is not a reason to shut down PV expansion while HECO continues to delay practical solutions.

If any Dealer in Hawaii is looking for a better alternative to workaround HECO restrictions, we should talk. Solaris makes a hybrid of solar energy and energy efficiency, that can provide space cooling/heating powered by solar DC directly operating a heat pump. No need for an inverter or selling power back to HECO, it is self powered and matches the need for cooling with the use of solar. sunpump@solar-hot-water.ca

ANONYMOUS
July 17, 2014

Cully Jude is an idiot who does not have a clue on how solar PV integrates with the grid. Same for the moderator. He should stick with solar water heating. No where in the world does the PV penetration levels in Hawaii exist on an isolated grid. There is no book to follow to guide the way. This is an experiment in real time, which these 2 clueless talking heads totally gloss over.

ANONYMOUS
July 17, 2014

For Hawaii solar hot water in any form will work well because can cheaply store hot water for days. The problem is that we still do not have an economic method to store electricity. Progress is being made on how to store electricity over a day but nothing affordable for multiday storage when have multiday periods of low wind or solar. Until that gets solved, Hawaii will have expensive electricity. So far all of the electricity storage solutions (except diesel backup in the backyard) only work on a utility scale--implying the grid will be around for a long time. Who owns it (public, private, coop) is a second level detail that will not drive the economics.

There is nothing that stops Hawaii residents from going off grid. Solar PV and electrical storage is highly competitive against $0.35 per kWh and above. Combine with low cut in speed VAWT and essentially all power needs would be met.

ANONYMOUS
July 17, 2014

Local utility companies should be in the business of providing the most practical sources of power, and not in the business of discouraging new power sources. What the local power company is doing, in the case of Hawaii, illustrates what can go wrong when corporations are allowed to control governmental policy.

Mr. Wagner, is spot on. I wish the people of Hawaii would stop listening to HECO"s BS, and start to form Island wide PUD's at least they could separate by Island then. Let's hope they come up with a relatively in expensive way to store power in the near future then everyone will be able to thumb their nose's at HECO, HELCO and Maui Power. Like the Parker Ranch.

Energy Bills are continuously rising and so are the harmful environmental impacts. This calls for action by all the consumers and Hawaii has set an excellent example for that with 50 percent of households have either solar PV or solar thermal systems on their rooftops. Listen up to the podcast and get some ideas, tips to reduce your home and business energy consumption.

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As energy costs consume more and more of our hard-earned dollars, we as consumers really start to pay attention. But we don't have to resign ourselves to $5/gallon gas prices, $200/month electric bills and $500 heating bills. There are...